To take entire iraqi cities, and what can be done about a local army with no will to fight . Well ask the experts. And has the sun set on britain as a global power . I told you last week that i thought so. Today youll hear from the British Ambassador to washington, who disagrees. Next, well bring you some lessons after irelands samesex marriage referendum. The real story is what it tells us about religion today. Then californias drought is scary, but it might just be the beginning. Are fullon water wars between nations in our future . The United Nations deputy secretary general paints a scary picture of a world thats getting dry and angry. But well leave you with a little bit of hope, but its way out there. Ill explain. But first, heres my take. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter did misspeak last week with remark that is caused a firestorm in both washington and baghdad. He explained the takeover of the city of ramadi by isis saying the iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. He only forgot to complete the sentence by adding the words for iraq. Its clear there are many people willing to fight fiercely and bravely in that part of the world. Just look at the levels of violence. The kurds fight ferociously for kurdistan. The shiites have been fighting doggedly for their people. The sunnis and isis are killing and dying for their cause. But nobody seems willing to fight for iraq. The problem really is not that iraqs army has collapsed. Its that iraq has collapsed. Isis is at heart an insurgency against the governments of iraq and syria. And so insurgency can thrive without some support from the local population. Isis gets that support from the discontent of sunnis in both countries who feel theyre being persecuted by the shiite and alawite governments. A polling firm in iraq has conducted more than a million interviews in the country over the last decade. They point out that the vast majority of sunnis in iraq des pies isis. More than 90 of iraqis in sunni predominant areas regard it as a terrorist organization. But he writes, isis has been able to capitalize on the deep profound discontent sunnis felt with the central iraqi government. The sectarian partitioning of iraq with shiites move to shiite areas and kurds and sunnis doing the same began with the civil war in 2006 but it has accelerated dramatically. Today sunnis cannot find towns in iraq where they can resettle. We need to face the facts. Iraq today no longer exists. In 2008, 80 of those polled said they were iraqi above all. Today that number is 40 , according to the poll. The kurds have taken every opportunity to further enhance their already considerable autonomy. I recently asked a kurdish politician how many kurds would support independence for their provinces. He replied somewhere between 99 and 100 . 12 years after saddams fall, the kurds and the baghdad government still cannot agree on a lasting deal to share oil revenues. In june 2014, brookings scholar Kenneth Pollack wrote an intelligent essay for the wall street journal outlining seven specific laws and policies that iraq needed to put in place to give nonshiite communities, the sunnis and kurds, confidence and a stake in the country. He argued that American Military aid should be conditioned on the enactment of those changes. Almost a year later, iraq has fulfilled only one of those conditions. The sectarian divide goes beyond iraq and feeds into it. Iran supports the baghdad government and shiite militias, and sunni regimes like saudi arabia have been accused of funding sunni militant groups in both iraq and syria and have declined to support the baghdad government much, even in its struggle against isis. After many announcements of arab air strikes, joint forces and military aid, the reality remains that many of the arab states around iraq are more antishiite than they are antiisis. Republicans urging that americans join with an arab force to fight isis might not have noticed, but there is no such arab force. Washington can provide aid, training, arms, air power, even troops, but it cannot hold together a nation that is falling apart. For more, go to cnn. Com fareed and read my Washington Post column this week. Lets get started. Youve just heard my political explanation for why isis has won some victories in iraq. Lets try to understand this from a military perspective. I was struck by isis taking of ramadi just two weeks ago. The terror groups final push began with a seize of car bombs said to be bigger than the bomb that fell the building in Oklahoma City. Isis is also said to have dug tunnels to aid their assault and have used a sandstorm to operate under cover. I want to understand why this gang of terrorists seems to be operating like a real military. Terrific guests. Retired u. S. Lieutenant general Mark Hertling once commanded all of northern iraq. He worked extensively with the kurds during the surge. He served three years in iraq in all and is a cnn military analyst. And Michael Ohanlon is one of the best military analysts in the business. Hes the codirector of the center for 21st century security at brookings. Mark, let me begin by asking you, what did you learn from watching the fall of ramadi or reading about it . I read about this and thought to myself, this is being run by saddams former army. Did that occur to you . It certainly did, fareed. A couple of things struck me as i watched it. First of all, the adaptability of the army of isis, if you will. The way theyre doing things now is very differently than very different than what they did a year ago. They are using formations differently. Theyre hiding better among the people. Theyre using the socalled human shields. Theyre using different tactics. The use of massive amounts of suicide bombs in cars, the ability to conduct intelligence against their enemies. In this case, the various factors of the Iraqi Security forces. Their ability to conduct reconnaissance in force to get a lot of information on an army theyre countering, which frankly is doing things the same in many manners. Theyre fighting hard, but theyre doing things the same way. Michael, what struck you about this recent phase of isis military strategy . Hi, fareed. Well, i was struck also. The sort of extrapolation of previous tactics of using simultaneity. It was the ten car bombs that were huge that also went off more or less at the same time. Part of what youre trying to achieve with that is a military effect. But part of it is a psychological effect. It reinforces some of your earlier political analysis, that its a combination of playing with peoples minds as well as achieving specific physical effects at bases or check points. So i think you create a climate of fear and inevitability. One of the things that many people have argued about isis is that behind this islamist facade or behind this Islamist Organization is a military backbone that is colonels and generals from saddams former army. If thats the case, mark, its going to be much harder to defeat to take back these cities because presumably they know these cities. They do, and thats whats been fascinating about it. You know, we look at some of the maps that we see on the various media, and it looks like they had this big amoeba of lands they occupy. Thats not true. Theyre, in fact, very focused on pinpointing their occupation, and they use the tactics of infiltrating, assassinating, and then intimidating. The combination of that in some of the big cities, and even some of the smaller towns, will allow them to get a support structure where they will continue to flow their logistics which supports their operations and, frankly, thats something thats sty mying the current iraqi forces. Michael, when you look at these ten car bombs that you talked about, which were really in some cases truck bombs, each one the size of the Oklahoma City bombing, and of course these were suicide bombers. These were people who gave up their lives for this advance action. Does it seem that in a situation like this the most fanatical guys win . That is, the people who are willing to really go out there and die for their cause are going to win and thats isis and not the iraqi army. You know, i think thats true, fareed. I agree with what mark said a minute ago, but i also think we have to underscore some vulnerabilities this organization has. For one thing, theyre trying to hold territory that theyre trying to govern. Thats much different than what al qaeda in iraq was doing during the time of the surge. So in other words, they have to hold certain fixed locations. Government facilities, other places that we can target, or i i should say the iraqi army can target and we try to help. I think one big issue here is should American Special forces be involved, not only in advising, but even in participating in some of the raids that would be used to take back a city. Because there are a lot of predictable locations. If we can work with Iraqi Special forces to hit hard and fairly simultaneously ourselves at a number of these locations, i think theres some real vulnerabilities that isil has trying to act as a government. Mark, let me ask you about a controversial piece here, which is the support of shia militias, the people who are battling isis very ferociously are the kurdish militias and shia militias. The kurdish militias we do support. The shia militias, weve been a little more wary because many of them are iranian backed and financed. Should we recognize at the end of the day that theyre the guys fighting isis and give them the air power they need . They are going to be players on the scene, fareed. Theyre certainly neighbors of iraq, so theyre going to want to contribute to this fight. We have got to work around their actions in one way or another without supporting them. Remember, these shia militias many of them are the same ones we were fighting when they were there. The adviser from iran is a guy that pledged himself to kill as Many Americans as possible and also contributed to our troubles that we had for quite a few years in terms of getting a Representative Government within iraq. So all of that is part of the very strong complexity of this situation. Yeah, were going to have to work somehow with them but not work with them, if you can understand what im saying. Mark hertling, Michael Ohanlon, thank you so much. Thank you, fareed. Thanks, fareed. Next on gps, i told you last week i thought britain was retreating from its global role. That caused quite a stir in london. The British Ambassador to the United States will join me in just a moment to tell me i was wrong, fee lightly, of course. Over 20 million kids everyday in our country lack access to healthy food. For the first time American Kids are slated to live a shorter life span than their parents. Its a problem that we can turn around and change. Revolution foods is a company we started to provide access to healthy affordable, kidinspired chefcrafted food. We looked at what are the aspects of food that will help set up kids for success . Making sure foods are made with high Quality Ingredients and prepared fresh everyday. Our collaboration with citi has helped us really accelerate the expansion of our business in terms of how many communities we can serve. Working with citi has also helped to fuel our innovation process and the speed at which we can bring new products into the grocery stores. We are employing 1,000 people across 27 urban areas and today, serve over 1 million meals a week. 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Yep, looks like its time to share what our cats love with your cats. New friskies 7. For cats. By cats. Last week in my take here on gps and my Washington Post column, i said that after 300 years, britain had resigned its role as a global power. Heres some of the examples of what i offered as evidence. The shrinking of britains army, the possibility that in the future it could have the same amount of manpower as the new york police department. The fact that britannia can no longer rule the waves as it currently has no aircraft carriers, though it does have two under construction. The 25 cuts in the Foreign Ministry in David Camerons first term, and cuts in the bbc world service, its Public Diplomacy arm. As you might imagine, my article generated strong feelings. Some brits, especially David Camerons fellow conservatives, thought i had maligned their great nation. Other brits, especially opposition labor rights, said hear hear which today means multiple retweets. One of the parties who begged to differ with me was her majestys ambassador to the United States of america, sir peter westmacott. He joins me now. Peter, pleasure to have you on. Thank you, fareed. Good to see you. I had a chance to get my views across. Tell me why im wrong. I think this talk of strategic shrinkage or britain withdrawing from the world is seriously overstated. If you look at the reality of life, it is different. Yes, the Foreign Office has had to take its cuts. The British Government has had to make savings. We had a major deficit. We had to get our public spending under control. Weve come a long way. Theres more to do, but weve come a long way. Yet at the same time, we have more diplomatic posts open around the world. Were in 160 different countries. We have 270 different posts. We are very active. If you look at the capabilities, look at what we do with our Armed Services and diplomacy around the world its still a remarkable story. The stuff were doing, for example, in iraq, were providing an isr capabilities, precision strikes, air tanking, delivery of munitions to the kurds to fight back against isil and so on. We are doing a lot in different parts of the world. I think the u. K. Is still very much in business. If you look ahead at the fact were going to spend 250 billion pounds over the next ten years on new equipment, building those aircraft carriers you mentioned, buying the f35s to put on it, replacing our Nuclear Deterrent submarines submarines were doing a great deal of things in the future. So i think this talk is a little overdone. Do you think that there is a, you know, the danger that if britain detaches from europe, if the referendum goes awry, you know, i look at a britain that has lost its special relationship with the United States for complicated reasons. Ashay has become important. The United States is not as focused on europe because europe is not in as much crisis as perhaps it was during the cold war. But for whatever reason, you dont have that role. You dont have a central role in europe. What are you then, a kind of small island off the coast of europe with no special relationship with anyone . When David Cameron was here a couple months ago, i remember the president of the United States. I was there in the white house, describing him as a great friend and one of my closest and most trusted partners in the world. That sounds to me like a pretty special relationship. When i was with the British Defense secretary and ash carter a few weeks after that i heard ash carter say that the special relationship with the United Kingdom was the cornerstone of the National Security of both of our countries. I think if you look at the detail of what were doing, the military cooperation, the interoperability, the way we Work Together to counter terrorism, i would not agree with your premise that theres not a special relationship thats died. I hear it regularly from the people i talk to. The think the way in which the United States and united king continues to Work Together across the board whether its Investment Business commerce promoting free trade in the world through the trans atlantic trade negotiations at the moment and in diplomacy and where neds the use of muscular force, i think we are significant and Major Players and thats what i hear from my friends here. If we are to change our relationship with the European Union, then were in a different place. But let me be very clear about this. The Prime Ministers intention, and thats why hes begun going around european capitals as we speak, is to ensure that we can get improvements in the way the European Union works. There are a number of changes we need to negotiate. But the strategy of the Prime Minister is to go to his colleagues, to seek those improvements, and to then go back to the british people in a referendum with a Strong Enough package of improvements that the british people will conclude that their future lies in the European Union. So thats the game. Thats the strategy. And thats my Prime Ministers plan. But the mood of the country has changed. Its not just the government. If you look at the vote on syria, the United States threatened the use of force against syria, drew this famous red line. One of the reasons, perhaps the principle reason barack obama changed his mind in an extremely embarrassing way, was the British Parliament refused to support any u. S. Military action. I think this is the first time the British Parliament has done that, certainly in my memory. Isnt that a sign that britain is unwilling to act like a global power . If you look at what were doing now, i think the evidence says the opposite. Yes, that vote took place during the Holiday Season in august at short notice. If you look at what were doing now in the u. S. Led coalition against isil, its really very significant what were doing in iraq. Were also active in syria. Were not taking part in air strikes in syria. Thats indeed the case. But were very engaged in the campaign to get rid of bashar al assad. Were engaged with our partners hes still around. Reporter to reinvigorate the training track but were also involved in training and equipping the syrian opposition. Were helping with isr facilities in iraq. And were doing a great deal with air tanking, with precision bombing, with trade and equip, with counter ie d especially support to the iraqi armed forces. We are significant players. So i think you should judge us by whats going on, by our action, and also by our very substantial investment programs for the future of our military capability. My experience in dealing with the British Intelligence officers, british diplomats is theyre of extremely high quality. I just wish they had more to do. Im not short of things to do, fareed. Thank you for having me. Pleasure. Next on gps, the Catholic Church could not keep the people of ireland from voting for samesex marriage. Well dig into the immense implications this has for our understanding of power or lack thereof of religion in the modern world when we come back. Ting. But did you know we also support hospitals using Electronic Health records for more than 30 million patients . Or that our Software Helps over 20 million smartphone users remotely configure email every month . Or how about processing nearly 5 billion in electronic toll payments a year . In fact, todays xerox is working in surprising ways to help companies simplify the way work gets done and life gets lived. With xerox, youre ready for real business. Modern world when we come back. This allergy season, will you be a sound sleeper, or a mouth breather. Well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38 more than allergy medicines alone. So you can breathe and sleep. Shut your mouth and sleep right. Breathe right. We got the new tempurflex and its got the spring and bounce of a traditional mattress. You sink into it, but you can still move it around. Now that i have a tempurflex, i can finally get a good nights sleep. When i flop down on the bed, and its just like, ah, this is perfect. Wherever you put your body it just supports you. Like little support elfs are just holding you. I can sleep now through the night vo change your sleep. Change your life. Change to tempurpedic. My name is fernando gonzalez. Im the gas Service Supervisor here in Sonoma County. We moved up here 35 years ago and we just love it up here, its a fantastic place to live. Our function is customer support. Making sure that our customers are safe and thats the most important thing. We know we are part of a huge company but Sonoma County is our home. Sonoma county is our pg e. What were doing really means something in the community and its just a great, great feeling. Together, were building a better california. Now for our what in the world segment. Irelands resounding approval of samesex marriage has led to some serious soul searching in the Catholic Church. The referendum in one of catholicisms traditional strongholds was an unmitigated disaster, said the association of catholic priests, and it illustrated the gap between the church and its people. The archbishop of dublin said the church needs to take a reality check. According to the week almost 90 of catholics in ireland attended mass every week in 1984. In 2011, only 18 of them did. It got us thinking, if religious attitudes in historically pious ireland are changing so dramatically, what does the future hold for religion around the world . If you look at recent trends in the United States, the most christian nation in the world, religion is on the wane. According to a recent report from the pew research center, selfdescribed christians dropped from 78. 4 of the population to 70. 6 of the population. A nearly eightpoint drop in just seven years. The religiously unaffiliated, like atheists and agnostics, increased from 16. 1 to 22. 8 over that time. Whats more, the decline in christians is happening across the board among the young and the old. Blacks, whites, and latinos and people with Different Levels of education. Even geography isnt a difference maker. The southern bible belt has seen a decline thats just as big as other regions of the country. Pew has another impressive report that looks at religion around the world, revealing some fascinating predictions. By 2050, christians in several developed countries, like the United Kingdom and australia, will see big declines and even lose their majority status. In france and new zealand, the religiously unaffiliated will be the largest segment of the population. The u. S. Will still be a majority christian nation, but christianitys share of the population will decline and the number of nonreligious americans will increase to more than one in four. So does all of this mean that religion will eventually be a thing of the past . No, because worldwide the numbers tell a different story. Christians and muslims will increase in numbers overall, keeping up with population growth or better, while the nonreligious will see their share of the population decline. Thats because religion will thrive in developing parts of the world, like subsaharan africa, where birthrates are high. Pew predicts the demographics will also contribute to a significant shift in the relative popularity of certain religions. In 2010, christianity was the most popular faith with islam ranking second. In 2050, islam will almost tie christianity because muslims who are younger and have high fertility rates will increase their numbers by 73 , over twice as much as any other religion. One point, lots of people claim and believe that europe is going to turn muslim in a few decades. Well, the pew report shows that even in 2050, only 10 of europes population will be muslim. In the u. S. , the number will be much lower still, though muslims will outnumber jews by a considerable margin. Over the years, some have thought that religion would die away as populations became more affluent. That may be true in europe, pew points out, and to a certain extent, even in the United States. But in other parts of the world, pew says, Economic Development has not contributed to a drop in the faithful. So it looks like faith will remain alive and well in the 21st century. Next on gps, from water shortages to water crises to water wars. What the earth has in store for us over the next few decades. A scary picture from the deputy secretary general of the United Nations. D over your heart. Is it beating . Good then my nutrition heart health mix is for you. Its a wholesome blend of peanuts, pecans and other delicious nuts specially mixed for people with hearts. I said people with hearts. Because Hearts Health is important. Thats why ive researched optimized and packaged this mix just for you. Not you. So if you have a heart start optimizing your nutrition with my nutrition. Planters. Nutrition starts with nut. spinning tires he doesnt need your help. Until he does. Three cylinders, dual overhead cams and 50 horsepower. Go bold. Go powerful. Go gator. Get 3,500 dollars off select gators at a dealer near you. The keys to this home belong to mark and alissa anderson. They bought the place four months ago on what was arguably the scariest day of their lives. Neither has any idea what the future holds for them. But they bought into a 30year mortgage anyway. That was bold. They must really believe in themselves. Buy in. Quickenloans home buy. Refi. Power. Big day . Ah, the usual. Moved some new cars. Hauled a bunch of steel. Kept the supermarket shelves stocked. Made sure everyone got their latest gadgets. Whats up for the next shift . Ah, nothing much. Just keeping the lights on. laugh nice. Doing the big things that move an economy. See you tomorrow, mac. See you tomorrow, sam. Just another day at norfolk southern. Californias historic drought has led the governor to impose the states first ever mandatory water restriction. One indication of just how bad its gotten, in Southern California they have allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to pay people to pull up their lawns as the l. A. Times reported. But the problem is hardly restricted to americas west coast. Look at central asia, once the fourth largest lake in the world. The Eastern Basin has completely dried out for the first time in 600 years. And the future looks even worse. Water use has been rising at double the rate of population growth, according to the United Nations. As water becomes more and more scarce, competition will increase, and that will lead to conflict, argues my next guest, even leading to fullon wars over water. He says isis is now using water as a weapon, and he has a unique perch from which to view the world. Jan eliasson is the deputy secretary general of the United Nations. Thanks for joining me sir. Thank you very much. Are you exaggerating . When we think about wars we dont think of them as being driven by water. Is this really a danger . I think we shall see this as an early sign of things to come. And if we dont move in the direction of cooperating and sharing resources and water primarily, then we risk more and more by the years that we now see ahead of us to see these turning into conflicts. Where do you give me a couple places where you really worry where this is happening. Well, ill give you an example from my time when i was mediating in the darfur crisis. We saw certain areas of Northern Darfur where militias had thrown a dead dog in the village water, in the well, and that forced the population to move to the camps. Because it was the only place they could get water and it was now all contaminated. Exactly. What help did they have from that . It was a lose lose proposition. So they destroyed the village but no one could take over the village. It was a loselose proposition. So that was one example. Then isil using water floods as a way of threatening flooding our villages. Then of course theres the growing problems of border rivers that effect two countries. One country needs electricity building a dam. Another needs to protect its agriculture. You see it in the nile, egypt, ethiopia. You see in in uzbekistan. It hasnt reached the proportion of open conflict, but its certainly a threat. And if this resource now becomes more and more scarce, we will be faced with a choice of either cooperating or fighting about it. The fighting about it is definitely a lose lose proposition. And the two big forces that seem to be at work here are the increasing demand, as people are moving out of poverty in large parts of the world, they want and need more water. The second is Global Warming in some form or the other, which is drying up parts of the worl, right . Yeah, well, you have population growth. Then you have the force of urbanization. City that is demand inordinate amounts of water and also collect sif solutions. Not so easy if you have poor people moving into poor countries, urban areas, creating slums. So actually the challenge for clean water is bigger for developing countries and also bigger than in the rural areas. Now, look at the scale of this demand. This is global water demand in 2000 and 2015. Thats just the b. R. I. C. Countries. Brazil russia indonesia, china, india, south africa. The yellow one is the world at large. By 2015, it goes up 50 . The world at large, you see the chart again. It seems like a 40 increase. Is part of it that we dont charge people for water . That people use this extravagantly because theres no cost to using it extravagantly . Yeah, i think we have to seriously look at the price of water. We have taken water for granted. In my country, sweden, we use five or six liters every time we use the toilet, and we dont even think about it. But now this issue is a global issue. A global crisis. We need to have solutions both for developed countries, who are now struck also by floods and drought. Look at your own country. Look at the United States. But also see that this glass of clean water is a luxury, a dream for 748 million people. I took this from the tap water outside your studio, fareed. This is the cause of the lack of this water is the cause of 1,000 children under the age of 5 dying every day because of lack of water and lack of sanitation. And this problem is a matter of health. It is also a matter of scarce resources that turn slowly into causes of conflict or cooperation. If we do it right, we can really see this as bringing nations together. Two countries affected by the same river, sharing it the right way. Israelis in the west Bank Settlers if they were to share the water fairly and share it in way that would make the palestinians take care of their olive trees well enough, that could be a tremendous confidencebuilding measure. So you can go all across the field where you can have the model of cooperation. But if you dont do that, you will risk landing in conflicts about resources, and water is the most critical one. So stead of lose lose, could you end up with win win. Definitely win win. Pleasure to have you on, sir. Thank you. Up next as if our terrestrial problems werent enough well talk about the dangers from up above. A bird, a plane . No, an asteroid. Is one coming to a city near you . My next guest says maybe. The complete balanced nutrition of great tasting ensure. With nine grams of protein. And 26 vitamins and minerals. And now with. Twice as much vitamin d. Which up to 90 of people dont get enough of. Ohhhhhhh. The sunshine vitamin ensure now has 2x more vitamin d to support strong bones. Ensure. Take life in. When we created the silverado rally edition we figured, why stop there . These four new silverado special editions are just the beginning. From this years Fastest Growing fullsize truck brand Chevy Silverado or, during the chevy Memorial Day Sale choose this silverado allstar with a total value of 8500 when you finance through select lenders. Sale ends monday. See your local chevy dealer today. If youre taking multiple medications does your mouth often feel dry . A dry mouth can be a side effect of many medications. But it can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath. Thats why theres biotene available as an oral rinse toothpaste, spray or gel. Biotene can provide soothing relief and it helps keep your mouth healthy too. Remember, while your medication is doing you good a dry mouth isnt biotene, for people who suffer from a dry mouth. A few weeks ago when i was in seattle, i was invited to visit the working laboratory of nathan myhrvold. Myhrvold was the longtime chief Technology Officer at microsoft, trained in physics by stephen hawking, and is a true polymath with interests ranging from physics to food and math and everything in between. He and his team have been working on Nuclear Power to stopping asteroids from hitting the either. Its xhenly believed that asteroids wiped out the dinosaurs but he says asteroid impacts are not just ancient history. Take a listen. You dont think we pay enough attention to the problem of asteroids. So in 1908, an asteroid hit in siberia. It devastated hundreds of square miles. It was hundreds of megatons. It was bigger than the largest atomic explosion ever on earth. But as luck would have it, it strikes the middle of siberia, in an area where theres only a few reindeer herders. If that asteroid was an hour earlier or later, if it had hit in europe, the United States, even if it had hit in the middle of the ocean, we would have grown up with the whole 20th century shaped by this horrific event. Imagine if it had hit london or new york or even the countryside of some place. We would have grown up thinking, oh, my god, theres death from the skies. We would have been focused on it. As it happens, it wasnt until really the 60s that people started thinking about it. And sheer luck it hit siberia. Sheer luck. Now, it happens another asteroid two years ago hit also in russia in a place called chelyabinsk. There we were lucky that the asteroid came in only 18 degrees above the horizon, thats about this much. A very glancing blow. It exploded in the upper atmosphere. It broke a million windows and caused about 1,500 injuries. If it had come in like this, it would have killed a million people. That would have been a wakeup call. So what do we do about it . Well, theres two things you have to do. First of all, you have to find the asteroids. Thats not difficult in principle, but weve put very little resources towards it. There are several different scientific projects that are aiming to try to find them. One is a giant telescope thats being built in chile on the top of a mountain. Theres also several proposed Space Missions that would send a space telescope up to look for these asteroids. Can we then deflect it . It depends on how far out it is. With luck, well find the asteroid where its still many years away from hitting. Could be as much as 50 or 100 years away. It could be shorter. Now, if you find it and its only a week out, party. Thats about all you can do. If you figure out where it is and its a small one, you can evacuate the area, of course. But if its further out, in fact, we do have the technology, or we could develop the technology, to go out there and nudge it. When its very far away, nudging it by a tiny amount is enough to make it miss earth. So i think its super important. So im working very actively on a scientific paper on this. Lots of other people work on it too, but its one of the areas ive decided to jump in with both feet. When you look out at the world, the things that worry you are not, you know, isis and al qaeda so much but bioterrorism, pandemics, asteroids, climate change. Fair to say . Well, theres very little value in me getting worried about the stuff that everybody else is already worried about. So if you take isis or some of these other big political thorny problems, theres lots of folks already working on it. I could add my voice, but i would have very little to contribute. Whereas, if you look at the areas where society isnt worried, where weve shrugged it off, those are the areas where you might actually make a difference. So its important, whether its inventing technology for people that no one else seems to care enough about to invent technology for, or threats from rare but potentially very significant things like new epidemics or bioterror, its in those area that is you can really add value by paying some attention, by focusing on it and a little bit being a gadfly and bothering people and saying, hey, pay attention. Nathan myhrvold, pleasure to have you on. Thank you. Next on gps, well stay extraterrestrial but this story may have a happy ending. Why science is excited about a moon many millions of miles away. Ill explain when we come back. Theyre custom made trains. You cant get any better than that. Siemens trains are not your grandparents technology. Theyre something thats gonna change the cities we live in today. I find it so fascinating how many people ride this and go to work every single day. Im one of the lucky guys. I get to play with trains. People say, wow, we still build that in the United States . And we say, yeah, we do this allergy season, will you be a sound sleeper, or a mouth breather. Well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38 more than allergy medicines alone. So you can breathe and sleep. Shut your mouth and sleep right. Breathe right. Devour food thats good for you, the same way, you devour food thats not good for you. Big day . Ah, the usual. Moved some new cars. Hauled a bunch of steel. Kept the supermarket shelves stocked. Made sure everyone got their latest gadgets. Whats up for the next shift . Ah, nothing much. Just keeping the lights on. laugh nice. Doing the big things that move an economy. See you tomorrow, mac. See you tomorrow, sam. Just another day at norfolk southern. This new tempurflex feels like a dream boat. To sleep on. Well, its got the spring and bounce of a traditional mattress, but then it also adjusts to my body. Ahhhh. This new bed it just wraps you up and cuddles you, but you can still move around. Now that i have a tempurflex, i can finally get a good nights sleep. Change your sleep. Change your life. Change to tempurpedic. To sleep happy guaranteed, and zero percent apr financing. Visit mattress firm, americas number one tempurpedic retailer. Female announcer sleep train challenged its manufacturers to offer even lower prices. But the mattress price wars ends sunday. Now its posturepedic vs. Beautyrest with big savings of up to 400 off. Serta icomfort and tempurpedic go headtohead with three years interestfree financing. Plus, free same day delivery setup and removal of your old set. When brands compete, you save mattress price wars ends sunday at sleep train. Your ticket to a better nights sleep june 1st is the seventh anniversary of this show and the 35th anniversary of cnn. The big guest on our first show here on gps was tony blair, envoy to the middle east quarter at the time a post he nounsed he would resign this week. Many of the trouble spot wes covered today we covered in our first show with him. In fact, many of the trouble spots we covered today, cnn was covering when it first began broadcasting on june 1st, 1980. It brings me to my question. Which of the following did not occur in 1980, the year cnn began broadcasting . Iraq invades iran, Syrias Hafez Al Assad survives an assassination attempt, Robert Mugabe becomes Prime Minister of the newly independent zimbabwe first recognized case of what became known as aids was reported. Which of these didnt happen in 1980 . Stay tuned and well tell you the correct answer. This weeks book is inspired by the world science festival taking place in new york this weekend. An amazing multimedia exploration of science and technology. Take your kids if youre in new york. Im reading the upright thinkers. It tells us how humans started standing upright and then over time discovered more and more fascinating ways to move ahead. If you want to understand the history of human progress, the path to creative thinking, the foundations of scientific breakthroughs, read this wonderful book. And now for the last look. When galileo peered through his telescope in 1610 and saw jupiters four large moons, that discovery advanced the worlds understanding of the solar system, providing evidence that not all celestial bodies rotated around the earth. For centuries, human beings have looked at the stars and wondered if life exists beyond our atmosphere. Well, this week nasa took a bold new step in answering these questions with a mission to one of the very moons galileo observed 405 years ago. Were trying to answer the big questions. Where did we come from . Where are we going . And are we alone . Data gathered by nasas gail lay low spacecraft suggested jupiters moon euro pa has a saltwater ocean beneath an icy crust. It may even contain twice as much water as we have here on earth. Scientists believe the moon contains the ingredients that make it the most likely place to find life beyond planet earth. And this week they selected nine instruments to send aboard a solarpowered probe, which will depart for europa in the next decade or so. Nasa has said the instruments are not life detectors, per se, however, they hope to begin to discern whether this moon of jupiter is habitable. To quote galileo, measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so. The correct answer to the gps challenge question is d. In 1981, not 1980, the cdc published a report describing an unusual lung infection in five young men. This was the First Official reporting of what became known as the aids epidemic according to aids. Gov. As for the other events that did occur in 1980, the iraqi army is still fighting a war, but now with iran on its side. Theres still an assad in power in syria, battling sunni militants. And mugabe transitioned from Prime Minister to president but remains in power. Lets hope 35 years from now this is actually history. Thank you for being a part of my program this week and for the last seven years. I will see you next week. Good morning. Im Brian Stelter and its time for reliable sources. Its a big news day. Were beginning with the news story the whole tv business cannot stop talking about. Its about Brian Williams and whats going to happen with the suspended newsman. Its been almost four months since he was suspended and most people have been assuming he will either come back to news now at the end of the suspension or he will be leaving nbc entirely frankly tarnished or disgraced after that exaggeration scandal. But this morning my sources are pointing to a third option a new role for williams. Not necessarily at news now, but somewhere else at nbc. Now, these talks are still top secret inside the network and anything could happen but nbc newss new chairman andy lack is